But Isn't Prison All About Deviant Sexual Behavior?

Inmate denied access to critically acclaimed novel

HUNTSVILLE,
Tex. – The late Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño has been hailed as
a literary hero by critics. The English translation of Bolaño's The Savage Detectives, published last
year in the United States,
was described by New York Times book critic Richard Eder as "complex, numbingly chaotic and
sinuously memorable."

The Texas
Department of Criminal Justice isn't so effusive. The organization has denied
an inmate access to the book based upon guidelines found in the department's Offender Orientation Handbook.

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The book
contains a passage that describes an oral sex contest in which one of the
contestants nearly chokes to death on the penis of a well-endowed recipient.